Java 8 Developer Preview Released

An anonymous reader writes "Oracle has released the first developer preview of Java 8 for the full range of platforms (Windows, Max OS X, Linux, Solaris). Java 8 is a major update to both language and platform with Lambda expressions, method references, default methods, a new Date and Time API, Compact Profiles, the Nashorn JavaScript Engine, and the removal of the Permanent Generation from the HotSpot virtual machine. 'This milestone is intended for broad testing by developers,' Java Platform Chief Architect Mark Reinhold wrote on his blog. 'We've run all tests on all Oracle-supported platforms and haven't found any glaring issues. We've also fixed many of the bugs discovered since we reached the Feature Complete milestone back in June.' Let the bug hunt commence!" This is the second part of the JDK "Plan B" where JDK 7 was pushed out without cool new features like lambda expressions to prevent stalling language development for too long.

Re: How about...

[binarylarry]

Those issues weren't with the language or the vm. They were with applets, which are a shitty deprecated part of the runtime that should be removed.

Re:Whew!

[Anonymous Coward]

A better question is whether they would fix them even if they did find them, like that rather glaring security vulnerability that they've just decided to brush off until their next major release last year.

The NSA told them they needed a little more time to break the new stuff.

And as much as this is in danger of becoming a meme ... I'm afraid this is how we're going to have to increasingly view such things.

Because on the topic of security, any US based company has completely ceased to be a trustworthy entity.

Re:Too late

[sproketboy]

Really? Java is still the #1 language and will remain so for a long time to come. The toddlers will use the supposed hip languages all they want meanwhile most other devs are just using Java and solving real problems.

Oh and Java uptake is usually 1 to 2 years not 4.

Re:Oh Yeah!

[TheRealMindChild]

Yeah, the fascination with lambdas makes my cranium throb. The garbage was bad enough in javascript, but now they are chucking them into every language. Screw defined functions! Let's just have partial functions jammed into the middle of other functions! Then we can copy and paste them all over the place and just change the one line/variable that needs changing to make it relevant to that block! Shit on proper code reuse and declaration! All we need is for every variable type to be a variant type on the back end and we are set!!!

Re:Oh Yeah!

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

People that complain about code features are generally ignorant of how to use them, and thus spread FUD about them.

Lambdas are a great powerful feature when you really don't need to write a full fledged function. In combination with something like multithreading, being able to write an off-thread lambda in-place is quite powerful, it's actually easier to maintain a thread that is set up, starts and is monitored all within the same functional block, rather than writing a bunch of support functions to start, stop and monitor the thread throughout a class or spread across many classes or files. Another key win for Lambdas is being able to write a predicate for a sorting function without having to reference some function somewhere down in the file.

Yes, like EVERYTHING in code, lambdas can be abused, but generally speaking lambdas are not significantly more complicated to understand and manage, if you are not a complete software noob. This is why senior developers should guide juniors and intermediates using code review to the correct use of code features rather than to simply encourage not to use a feature out of fear and ignorance.

Re:What do lambdas provide that anon classes do no

[abies]

It makes a huge difference in readability when transforming collections. Difference between (Xtend example)

people.filter[age >30].forEach[println(it)]

and

people.filter(new Predicate1() {
      public boolean match(Person p) {
          return p.getAge()>30;
      }
}).forEach(new Procedure1() {
      public void run(Person p) {
            System.out.println(p);
      }
});

in readability and ease to write goes outside of what I normally call 'syntax sugar'. Going this way, most languages can be defined as syntax sugar over assembly...

Re:A Joke

[RaceProUK]

The 1990's called - they want their joke back. #tiredmeme

Modern JVMs are fast enough, most people can't tell the difference between them and pure native code.

Re:What do lambdas provide that anon classes do no

[stdarg]

On the contrary, GP nailed it. When you start extending and composing and declaring too much, you lose the impressive and straightforward readability of GGP's example and end up with write-only code like Perl (to many people who are less capable than you).

If you're smart, functional programming is quite fun. If you have to work with someone who is, um, less smart but still forced to write functional code in your shared project, God help you man.

tldr; we don't all work in the upper echelons of the programming world